Mad Men, Season 3

Mad Men is coming to an end shortly, but I've just finished it's third season, and after a somewhat meandering start, it packed a powerful finish and has me ready for more seasons.

The year is now 1963. At the end of last season, a British company brought Sterling Cooper, so our recognizable cast is getting used to being run by Lane Pryce (Jared Harris). Roger Sterling (the great John Slattery) is newly married to his "trophy" wife, while trying to deal with his daughter's upcoming nuptials. Our hero, or should I say anti-hero, Don Draper (Jon Hamm), has landed a huge account, Hilton Hotels, by somehow impressing Conrad Hilton himself at a country club.

Draper, also unflappable, faces his downfall this season. In the first few episodes, he seems to be in a constant state of bemusement at what's going around him. But as he says later, he's a creative man, not an account man, as he doesn't know how to value relationships. His constantly put upon wife, Betty (January Jones) finds love with an aide to Governor Rockefeller, and then discovers Draper's deepest secret--he is not who he says he is.

There are fourteen episodes, and it covers a lot of ground. Draper has an affair with his kid's teacher, he also gets robbed by a couple of teenagers. There are office politics involving Pete Campbell, the incessant ladder climber (Vincent Kartheiser), who also has an affair with an au pair living down the hall of his building. Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) continues to be a big asset to the company, especially concerning women's products--she alone sees that an Ann-Margret knock-off is not going to sell diet soda. She will start to feel taken for granted, and think of moving on. And, in an episode that has "jump the shark" written all over it, a man's foot is cut off by a riding mower.

But the season's last two episodes kick everything into high gear. The penultimate one, and we've been waiting for it, has the cast dealing with the Kennedy assassination. We see the Walter Cronkite clip, but intriguingly they use the far-less-seen Chet Huntley footage. Betty is watching live as Lee Oswald is killed, and says, "What is happening!" which must have been on everyone's minds.

The last episode, and I don't want to spoil, even though this is about four years old, involves Sterling, Bert Cooper (the scene-stealing Robert Morse), Draper and Pryce starting their own agency, completely on the sly. Draper does this even as Betty has filed for divorce. This last episode was directed by series creator Matthew Weiner, and it's thrilling in its presentation.

I like to give awhile between seasons of a show--I'm not a binge watcher--so I won't get around to Mad Men, Season 4 for a while, but I'm already chomping at the bit for more. The way this series captures the world of America in the 1960s is so good, whether it be attitudes about race, sex, or class, that it could be used as a historical text. I suppose next season will involve the coming of The Beatles.